The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically separating bars from a bundle thereof and also for arranging the separated bars in such a manner that they are fed one at a time to machines such as automatic lathes, croppers, presses and the like.
It is generally known that such automatic machines are served by a feeder provided with a device for pushing bars; in the feeder input magazine, bars must be arranged in order, one behind the other, without being superimposed. The actual positioning of the bars in such magazines is a long, difficult and frequent operation: in fact, if the bars are relatively thin and therefore flexible it is difficult to arrange them in the aforementioned manner, while if the bars are thick, their weight is considerable; on the other hand, in order to limit the dimensions of the magazines and therefore to avoid burdening the feeder unit, the magazine must contain a small number of bars and therefore loading must be carried out frequently.
The object of the present invention is to make up for such deficiencies and difficulties by feeding the automatic machines which use the bars starting from a high capacity magazine in which the bars are arranged in bundles: the problem and the waste of time involved in ordering the bars do not exist and the user machine has an ample operating range.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus which is reliable and effective whatever the size of the bars.